College Week to showcase film ‘First Generation’

“First Generation,” an award-winning documentary that chronicles four high school students struggling through the college application and enrollment process, will be screened at 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 18, at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Park North.

It’s just one of the many events packed into San Antonio’s second annual College Week, or Destination College, whose goal is to encourage young San Antonians to set their sights on a college degree.

A movie — a free one — in a comfortable setting can do a lot to help students and parents unfamiliar with the process of applying to college, matriculating there, and then figuring out ways to pay for it.

The New York Times said the film “packs power in its subtle way of portraying the complex problems that these low-income, first-generation students face.”

The film’s four subjects, among them a daughter of farm workers, are trying to break the cycle of poverty to become the first in their families to graduate from college. So many San Antonio youths fall in the same category.

“They must overcome mind-sets that make them feel unworthy to even apply to top-tier colleges; they must make major financial decisions based on incorrect or incomplete knowledge about financial aid; they must work hard to make ends meet and, hopefully, earn scholarships; and they must excel in standardized tests for which they seem ill-prepared,” The New York Times story said.

The screening is sponsored by San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro, the San Antonio Education Partnership, Generation TX San Antonio and the San Antonio Youth Commission.

The 95-minute film, shot over the course of three years, features leading educational experts and explores not only the students’ dilemma — but how their futures will impact the nation’s future.

The documentary’s directors Adam and Jaye Fenderson will be there for a discussion on building a college-going culture, as will several San Antonio educators, students and community leaders.